FASA Games, Inc.

Upbrigning? 0 to 10 YO
Apprenticeship? 5 years?
Early Career? 2 years?
And Tour of Duty? 2 years to depends?

Thanks.

We had previously figured Upbringing was about 12 and each additional step was 4 more years but that rough estimation meant for final age and it may not work for what you're planning.

Based on the description I would assume that Upbringing is up to the age you would calculate that schooling starts, 6-9 years old in my campaigns. Apprenticeship would bring the character to the age of majority on their world, 16 in my campaigns. Early Career sounds to be the period of rapid learning that comes from becoming independent and developing a methodology in your career, likely only two years. The Tours sound like they're modelled after military tours so I'm guessing 4 years a piece.

This would all be very subjective. An Muster Edificer would have a very long apprenticeship while a Muster Merc's would be a matter of months, not because they would be seen as adults at different ages but because there is just much more that an architect needs to learn than a soldier. Nobles would have identical apprenticeships but the Early Career of a landed noble would be long compared to a knight because a knight's training is meant to get them onto the field quickly while a Baron's education continues into their adulthood. Realistically if you're running a game through the ages of the characters it would be more likely that the characters would be in different phases of their careers regardless of how their statting is handled.

Yeah, it depends on the career. A tour of duty as a priest is most likely going to be long. But for Brothers Battle, it is short. Academy Training means college, in my opinion. So four years college, and possibly a tour of duty as a grad student. Guilders will tend to be younger than priests because their training is different and faster paced. Nobles will have the most educational resources, but also the most pressure to go out and accomplish something at a young age.

As for tours of duty, how long are they? A tour of duty in a war zone is supposed to be 1 year. An enlistment tour is 4 years, at least here, so soldiers have training (early career) and one or two tours of duty in a 4 year time span. I guess the best answer is "it depends", and see how the player justifies the age they want their character to be.

I sometimes reward older characters with more xp, because I get tired of seeing everyone play a 20 something year old every campaign. One campaign I gave everyone a third tour of duty and told them to design veterans. That was quite fun, but it didn't last as long because the characters started pretty powerful and had less room to grow. But FS is nice, there are upper limits on skills and stats, so at some point people are compelled to branch out and develop outside their core capabilities.

Those numbers sound about right. The extra tour of duty definitely works to get a more veteran character, but yeah, characters can start fairly competent already (with a little planning).

I would say as a general rule, Priests (other than Brothers Battle), Guild Engineers, and Reeves probably would be the "oldest" starting characters.

Agreed, high tech, law, and finance have lengthier apprenticeships than other fields. I have been a lawyer for 15 years, and I recently noticed that my trial prep times are no longer getting shorter. I have reached an optimal point in my abilities after a mere 15 years. The priesthood is also an older persons profession, and high tech requires years of study just to know what you don't know. So I would agree, priests, engineers, and reeves would tend to be older based on their skill sets and the time required to build those skills.

Thank you! All your answers help me have a better game. Sorry if I seem like leeching answers

All questions are good questions - they help us all develop a richer and more detailed game world.